


Riverine

by Hominid



Series: Headwaters [1]
Category: Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bester isn't so bad - or is he?, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Telepathy, Violence towards potted plants, mention of pregnancy and fetal death, one small divergence from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 05:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15551016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hominid/pseuds/Hominid
Summary: An encounter in medlab that sets the scene for a multi-chapter fic called "Shiva". What if Bester’s role had played out a little differently after the Shadow War? Set in Season 4, between “The Illusion of Truth” and “Thirdspace”. A small divergence from canon that could lead to much bigger ones.No major warnings here but you know anything with Bester in it tends to get disturbing.





	Riverine

“The implants triggered intracranial hemorrhages on a massive scale.  We did everything we could, but there was catastrophic damage to the medulla, cortex, frontal lobes, almost the whole brain.  We performed an emergency postmortem C-section, but were unable to resuscitate the fetus. I’m very sorry.”  Lillian had worked out the wording with Stephen before he left for Mars, but there was no good way to give that kind of information to a vindictive psi cop whose loved ones had just died in your care. “I won’t pretend we fully understand the process, but something activated the Shadow tech after we transferred the tubes to the long-term cryo facility. That shouldn’t be possible, but…”

“Why?  Why her and the other five, but not the rest?”

So a psi-cop’s first question was the same as any other bereaved relative’s.

“We don’t really understand that either,” she admitted. There was no sense in trying to bluff a telepath. “Whatever it was, it affected all the patients who’d been temporarily revived from cryo, but none who’d remained frozen.  We think the tech may have used the period of activity while they were awake to configure itself to self-destruct when it detected further interference.”

“To prevent them being woken a second time…”

“That’s one interpretation, yes. But I can promise you there was no question of waking them during the transfer.” Damn, she was sounding defensive, guilty.  She _felt_ guilty, of course, but that didn’t mean she had actually done anything wrong.  Would a grieving P12 make that distinction? “We never disconnected a power source until we were sure the new one was operating. It’s possible the tech detected subtle changes in the supply, but that’s just one hypothesis.  It could equally have responded to being physically moved around the station, or to something else entirely.  The cryo-pods are Earth tech, so we understand them: we know nothing we did would even register on their systems.” 

“So, whatever the implants responded to, they picked up on it themselves while they appeared to be inactive.”

“Exactly. The strangest thing is that all six were affected within a few hours of each other although we’d moved them in batches over several days. I’d be lying if I said we had even one plausible hypothesis for how or why the reaction was synchronized. In Carolyn’s case, it occurred 31 hours after we moved her.”

Bester nodded, his eyes never leaving hers.  Was he scanning?  She’d expected to feel more threatened, but that was silly. A P12 could look a long way into her mind before she felt anything at all. How deep would he need to scan to do real harm? Keep talking, she told herself.  If he can see you’re giving information freely, he won’t need to use force. “It’s also possible the tech is programmed to shut down independent brain function automatically once the connection to a Shadow ship is established. When they regained consciousness here…

“You’re saying it was designed to shut down the organics once they’d had time to bond with a ship.”

“Maybe. Or it could be a failsafe that destroys organic components if a successful bond isn’t confirmed within a set period.”

“You have a great many theories, but you don’t really know anything at all, do you Dr. Hobbs?” His expression was mild, polite even, but now the threat was clear as a tiger’s shadow cast on the silk of a pup tent.

“Stephen – Dr. Franklin – was always honest with you that we were out of our depth with the Shadow tech.  We’ve worked hard to understand it, but...”

“Is that why he’s mysteriously unavailable to meet me in person?  Have you been sent in his place as an ignorant sacrifice? Withholding information from me is _not_ a survival characteristic, Dr, Hobbs.”

She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone Stephen was on his way to Mars, least of all this psi cop with unknown agendas and a known power base in the Corps’ secretive Mars installations.

“Ah! That _would_ explain why your security goons are in the dark. You know, my ‘power base’ on Mars could save Dr. Franklin a lot of unnecessary effort if only your superiors would moderate their paranoia once in a while.”

“I guess you know I’m not really in the loop on that.”  Stephen had briefed her only that Bester had been helping them conditionally: an exchange of favors, not of trust.  Now, with his lover dead, they had nothing left that he’d want to trade for.

“I know.”

He stood and turned away, suddenly focused on the ficus plant on the counter. With his eyes off her, the tiger vanished, and he was just another bereaved relative alone among strangers. She watched his gloved fingers tear leaves off and drop the crushed remains to the floor.

“Did you want to give the child a name? For the memorial service? Many people find that helpful.” She was trained to ask that, and she would do her best for everyone in her care, whether they thanked her, snapped at her, or burned her mind for it. (It hadn’t gone well when Stephen tried. “Carolyn should choose,” Bester had snarled. “So get her well enough to do that and spare me the maudlin sentiment.”)

He showed no sign that he’d heard, which, under the circumstances, she would take as encouragement.

“I can give you a list of gender-neutral names if you'd like.  We don’t ascertain gender unless there’s a medical reason or parental request. Personally, I like nature names, River, Mountain, Forest, Sky…”

<River.> His back was still turned and his fingers still crushing the juice out of leaves. He clearly wasn’t going to discuss his choice with her. That was fine.

“Thank you.  I’ll see it goes on the record,” she told him. “I’m truly sorry we couldn’t save them.”

He took a deep breath, turned to face her. “I know. Thank you. Did she… Carolyn… Was she aware?”

That was the other question they all asked. Luckily, the good answer was the true one. “We’re confident all of them remained unconscious throughout.  When the implants activated, the effects were catastrophic and virtually instantaneous.  There was no indication of brain activity other than the bleeding itself. You can be 100% sure that she didn’t suffer.”

He nodded, biting his lip.

“That goes for River too. A fetus at that stage of development doesn’t have enough of a nervous system to be feel distress.”

“Not entirely correct.”

“No?” A P12 could detect things no instrument could, but Psi Corps didn’t share much medical knowledge. “My training didn’t cover telepathy in any detail,” – just the bare bones of genetics, screening and detection – “but I’m willing to learn.”

Bester gave the barest flicker of a smile.  “There isn’t a mind in the early months, but there’s a… flutter, enough for a strong teep to make a connection. You’re right that it can’t process sensations for itself yet – even primitive ones like wellbeing or pain are too complex – but it can mirror emotions broadcast by a more developed mind. If you’re right that Carolyn never suffered, then neither did the child.”

“I promise you Carolyn felt nothing.”

“Are you sure?” 

He must have closed in while he’d been talking. His glove was off.  Lillian tried to pull her hand free of his, but she couldn’t move.

“If you picked her out for experiment, or didn’t do everything  possible to save her…”

His lips thinned. She tried to dodge his gaze but found her attention drawn closer, to the crinkling of skin, the flexing of extraocular muscles as his eyes narrowed and she slid into the pit of his pupils.

Knowing the damage a deep scan could leave on blood vessels, she’d imagined it would feel like pressure, but it was more like temperature, or both at once, like having her brain hooked up to a hydrothermal vent, heat and pressure building to explosion point…  Memories and feelings raced past, bubbled forwards or choked back by a purpose that wasn’t hers.  Carolyn in the cryo tube, alarms buzzing as they tried to halt the bleeding, knowing it was hopeless but trying anyway. Hotter, hotter... The baby, the fetus dammit – her medical knowledge made her who she was, and the other mind wasn’t going to take that. Scalding now…  And then gone.  She felt like the dead jellyfish they'd flushed down the sluice after the lab aquarium heat control failed, but she was alone with her thoughts again and that was good.

“You’re not to blame.”

It was oddly cathartic to hear it stated with such certainty.  But not worth permanent brain damage.

“You’ll recover soon enough. Be grateful I took the glove off. The force required to extract so much without skin contact would have left you a vegetable.”

He turned in the doorway, frowned. She felt threat darken her mind like a cloud blocking the sun or a needle point jabbing at her jugular.

“Try to take better care of the other telepaths. Harming you would be very easy for me. It’s refraining from damage that requires effort.”  He closed his eyes, sighed.

She glimpsed a small, tired figure briefly framed in the doorway before it slid shut. By the time she’d flexed her wobbly limbs and sat up, he was long gone. Her head was going to ache for a while, but she could live with that. Bester had cleared her of guilt and she’d persuaded him to name his child, which was more than Stephen had achieved. She wanted to see his face when she told him, but that would have to wait for his return from Mars.

It took quite a while for her to remember that she’d allowed Bester to learn of Stephen’s trip to Mars. That probably ought to concern her, but somehow it just didn’t seem important. There was certainly no reason to worry anyone else about it.

 


End file.
